Establishment The city was founded by re-settlers who were running away from the war that engulfed Right-bank Ukraine in 1654. The years before the region was a sparsely populated part of the Cossack Hetmanate. The group of people came onto the banks of Lopan and Kharkiv rivers where stood an abandoned settlement. Some sources indicate that the city may have been named after the Ukrainian name for “swan”: kharka. Other sources offer that the city was named after its near-legendary founder, Kharko (a diminutive form of the name Kharyton). According to archive documents, the leader of the re-settlers was otaman Ivan Kryvoshlyk. The Kharkov regiment emblem on the sign to its 250th anniversary
Life of wandering philosopher Skovoroda is linked with Kharkiv. In 1759-1769 he lectured at the Kharkiv Collegium, wrote many poems, published as collection “Garden of Divine Songs”. The philosopher loved Kharkiv and believed that it could become a forerunner of living Christian faith and high education for other cities and towns of Ukraine. The Monument to H. Skovoroda at the building of Kharkiv Pedagogical University named after him Kharkiv Pedagogical University named after H. Skovoroda
Kharkiv is one of the main cultural centres in Ukraine. It is home of 20 museums, over 10 theaters and a number of picture galleries. Large music and cinema festivals are hosted in Kharkiv almost every year. International Short Film Festival International Dance Festival “ART-Bomb” East Fire Festival International Children’s Television Festival “Dytiatko”
Klavdiya Shulzhenko, the most popular female singer of the Soviet Union Maria Burmaka, Ukrainian singer, musician and songwriter Leonid Bykov the actor, film director and script writer Lyudmila Gurchenko, actress, singer and entertainer Nikolai Barabashov, Astronomer, co-author of the first pictures of the far side of the Moon